Christ is risen!

No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends. John 15:13
It would be so easy to now move on from Easter as we have had the celebrations on the day but in fact it will go on for more weeks yet and for now, its mingled with Anzac day. Two events which we reflect deeply on. There is the reflection of the ultimate sacrifice of  Christ and the sacrifice of thousands of  men and women in the war. I recall visiting the Somme some time ago. Heartbreaking, numbing,emotional, utter grief and disbelief  at the 1000's of lives lost and yet I felt a spirit of peace hovering over the Somme. Its almost sacred ground I was walking on. Indeed it was sacred ground.
I felt that day, as I looked  at 10,000 names of soldiers who had no known grave, of hundreds of cemeteries that lined the roads and battle fields that Christ was deeply  present. Because of Easter,  he knows our sacrifice, he knows our suffering, he knows our grief, our desire for peace and he is forever in it.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

The Villas Brettonneux Cross in the Perth Cathedral

Easter love.

God has poured out his love to fill our hearts, Romans 5:5
We have seen the great love of God at Easter. A love that caused Jesus to die on a cross for us, A love that goes on and on in our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. But what do we do with this love?  Is it just within us to fill our hearts or is it there for us to share and keep the love of God flowing, a love that brings with it compassion and loving care and life that can be shared around, given away, 'hugged'onto  another.  Its  love with action. Its like a river that keeps flowing  and traveling and nourishing, a river of God's love. Its  not like a pond where the waters go nowhere, where the waters are like a dam, contained and held within.This Easter love that we have received needs to bubble over, keep flowing outwards and  sharing it with others. What are you going to do with this Easter love?
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Is God's love in you a pond or a flowing river?

Good Friday

So Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe. Pilate said to them. 'Here is the Man.' John 19:5
Let our minds transport us back to a part of the world that throbs with the words and wonder of Jesus himself.

In the 1800's William How wrote this hymn:
It is a thing most wonderful. almost too wonderful to be true.
That God's own Son should come from heaven, and die to save a child like me.
I sometimes think upon the cross and shut my eyes and try to see.
The cruel nails and crown of thorns and Jesus crucified for me.

let us gaze on the wonders of the day and see Jesus pinned to the cruel tree, not by nails, but by love for you and me.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

A heel bone of a crucified person with the nail driven through. Museum in Jerusalem

Seek God first.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through the generations. 
Psalm 145:13
I was humming a tune last night that has stayed with me into this morning. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God  and his righteousness.'(TIS 745) It goes onto say. Ask and it will be given unto you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you .  When I think of this song I am projected back in time to when I worked in the Pitjantjara community of Ernabella in South Australia and the rich harmonious voices of the aboriginal people at day break singing these words from their camp. Sung in their language with these timeless words that hold no bounds, no discrimination, no barriers. Every morning was a spine tingling God experience.  Having been given the gift of a new day how do we welcome it in the name of the Lord?  By song? by prayer?  Or perhaps by just sitting in the garden in the stillness with  God working the new day  around us, creating.  Any one of these will ensure our day is in God's hands.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Their voices rang out across the morning sky.

On solid ground we stand

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born. From everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:1-2
If ever I had a perception of the magnitude of God's existence it has been in two specific places. One place was in the desert of  South Australia where I stood on ground so ancient. It was ground that had been forest long before it became a sea and long before it became a desert. I stood there on blackened soil mounds that were petrified stones of ancient tree trunks  embedded with fossilised  sea shells  and was overwhelmed with the time span between when God created them and me standing on them in 2011 and yet I felt  a great closeness to God. The second experience was when I stood  at the corner of the Dolorosa in the narrow streets of the old city of Jerusalem. Standing on the same stone streets that Jesus had walked on as he drew closer and closer to the cross and his crucifixion. We can draw great comfort from knowing that God has always been and always will be. What a mighty God to surrender ourselves to!
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Ancient forest in the desert showing brown petrified tree stumps.

God's work of art.

Accept my offering of praise O Lord.   Psalm 119:108
Have you been  stopped in your tracks at the sight of a 'glowing' autumn tree in full dress of delightful colour? . It's like God says as he puts down his painting palette , 'There it is, I have completed the colouring of this one and it now stands for your wonder and delight.' I am so warmed in my heart by his presence in this way. The autumn confrontation of beauty, breathtaking revelations of multiple colours of his glory. I look from tree to tree with a sense of  'there he is in all his glory and only God can dress a tree like that.' its wonderful to catch his Spirit this way, its fuel for the day. Look about, don't lose the moment of the Spirits refreshing in the rush to get to yesterdays unfinished work. Pause a moment with God and thank him for giving us more than we expect.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne

layer upon layer

'I am the resurrection and the life.' says the Lord. John 11:25
There is something special about autumn. God brings a sense of freshness, of quiet mornings, of colour and emptiness, of fog and mist, of perfect reflections on still waters. A beauty so deep. I think in every season we can see the Glory of the Lord if we are looking. There are multiple layers of death and life, all seeming to die before living. Its resurrection' stuff' that brings to mind the Easter message. Take a moment, just a moment and marvel at a tree in colour, then look again in a little while at its emptiness and then, in spring look again, and see layer upon layer of the Glory of the Lord. Of death and dying and resurrection.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Multiple layers of life and death

ancestors of the followers

This is the list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:1-6
For many years I have been compiling the family history and through that I get a strong sense of who I am. I can see as far back as 1112 that we had a bishop in the family in Germany. 1112!! And since then there has been many,many clergy.Several of the women were Methodist mission workers among the poor and the orphans on the streets of Melbourne in the 1890's. So many faithful people. I have  several small books of reflections, written by a one of the women, and they give a great insight into her God and our family story. So many have walked in the footstep of  Jesus and still are. So many have lived their faith through great adversity, walking step by step with Jesus one foot after the other braking down walls of discrimination, injustice, exclusion. Feeding the poor and giving shelter to the homeless and holding the hand of the dying soldiers in the two World Wars.  I thought of Jesus who walked the earth. I thought of his list of ancestors and I thought of how we are all 'the ancestors of the followers' as we continue to follow in the steps of Jesus.
Dorothy De Hueck Doherty said. Those who follow in Jesus footsteps, who never deviate from his teachings, find that these teachings are revolutionary. 
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

A carpenter in Nazareth said to be a descendant of Jesus. 

My Saviors love

He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. Job 9:8
I  think on this text and straight away I find myself singing the old Sunday school favorite 'Wide wide a the ocean, high as the heavens above deep deep as the deepest sea is my saviors love.' Some things never go from our memories and how blessed we are to have been taught by faithful people the grounding  of a Christian life. The ocean so vast, so wide  that its horizon meets the sky and its edges wash the uncountable grains of sand onto its shores. It gives me a sense that if God can encompass such a broad creation and control it, with its beauty and its storms then we his creation  are well included in his care through our beauty and our storms.There is a saying: I can face the waves for I trust the one who made the ocean.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Shine Jesus shine.

Your time - my time

Martha complained to Jesus because Mary visited with him while she worked. Luke 19:41
Prayer and work are two elements of faith that so often get out of balance. Sometimes its all work and little prayer, sometimes its prayer and a little work. I think of this and a picture comes to mind of a person in a dingy  rowing with one oar. Whats he doing? He is going round and round in circles and getting nowhere. Give him two oars and he rows with rhythm, the boat balanced and going in the right direction. There is no point  complaining to our brothers and sisters or to Jesus if the balance isn't right between work and prayer and really, you cant have one without the other! How do you know when you have the balance right? Is it something to do with an inner peace and quiet?
On this matter St Francis De Sales says: Each Christian needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy: then we need an hour.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Take time to smell the flowers

In the light of Christ we go.

O send out your light and your truth. Psalm 43:3
I love the still, quiet mornings, they have a real sense of peace as I imagine the Lord completing his daily task of creating yet another day. He puts the night stars away and brings out light from darkness with the rising sun,  often in a kaleidoscope of colour, that spreads across the morning sky.. The picture it creates reminds me of the light of Christ breaking through into a dark world as we his followers carry that light wider and wider into the world to those special places God has given us  to serve in.
May the Spirit of God
The Spirit of wisdom and strength
rest upon you and fill you with peace.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

The sun rises through the darkness over  the sea of Galilee 

Bless and be blessed

Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe. John 20:29
Remember this lovely song we sang in Sunday school? Count your blessings name them one by one......
I woke up in the night to the loud sounds of the crickets 'singing' and I thought to myself, why are they singing in the middle of the night. Their song seemed to be very joyful  and there was another sound , a magpie warbling  from the branches of the tree near my window, why at 4 in the morning?  And then I heard another sound and realised it was raining. Steady, big drops, falling on the parched ground. I wanted to stay awake to listen to these songs but instead fell back to sleep so blessed  from  the blessings.So much of life is a blessing. I see blessings as something we receive or give away. In the morning I  was still full of these blessings I had received in the night and ready to share the joy of blessings in my day. I like these words from a hymn by I.B.Wilson.
Make me a blessing.
Make me a blessing.
Out of my life may Jesus shine:
Make me a blessing, O Savior I pray,
make me a blessing to someone today.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Double blessing

Let us pray

There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon: this man was  righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. Luke 2:22
Sometimes we hear a prayer and it resonates with us. We feel like it is 'our' prayer. We feel like it was  worked on with God's love and meant just for us.
 Take just a moment to slowly read the words of this beautiful, life giving prayer and once read, read it again slowly and let it sink in.

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not go in fear of falling or catching fire
I choose to inhabit my days:
to allow my living be open to me:
to make me less afraid, more accessible
to loosen my heart until it becomes
a wing, a torch,a promise.
I choose to use my insignificance to live
so that which comes to me as a seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.
(Davana Markova)

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

so that which comes to me as seed, goes out as blossom

Shinning light

'........and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light around me become night,even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day for the night is light to you.  Psalm 139:10-12
I shared these thoughts with an elderly lady who could not see her way through some anxieties and 'darkness' They were starting to overtake her especially at night time.  How often have you been scared of the  dark? I recall as a child running down the long hallway to my room where there was a light on. I recall waking up in the night and hiding under the bed covers because it was so dark. There I would hid, clutching the bed clothes, frantically pleading with God to be under the  covers with me. I was scared stiff. Then as I grew older and God filled my life more, I felt such fears  leaving me. Even when I  was rescuing a miner  many years ago down a very deep dark hole, sure I was anxious in the dark but not terrified because I had learnt to reach out for God's hand in times of need.
If fear or uncertainty creeps into the 'dark of life' I find myself reaching out to God and can almost 'feel' the light filtering through the dark. There is heaps in those few words from psalm 139, heaps of comfort.  - - and your right hand shall hold me fast.....darkness is not dark to you.....its as bright as the day.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

Shining light in the darkness

Morning light

I will bow down towards your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and faithfulness. Psalm 138:2
Often I am lost for words when I am out walking. There is just me, and those I take with me in prayer, and God. If its a morning walk or a quiet time sitting in the garden I see the last of the night stars fading into the day . The rising sun is still in its process of creating light for the new day bringing dappled colours  through the trees and all is quiet. It warms my heart, stills me, takes my breath away. It takes my words, leaving me in awe and I want to take my shoes off and slowly,  and beautifully a song rises up in my heart. With the coming of a new day new opportunities are opening up. I have sung. I have prayed and I have been in the presence of the Lord. I am prepared to' be ' the gospel and God knows my heart is blessed and I call it my morning prayer. What is your experience of morning prayer?
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

sometimes others join me.

Come away with me for a moment.

Glorious things of you are spoken. (TIS 446)
When I pause at the flowering gum tree  to look closer at the deep, deep red of its colour, a delicate flower of beauty on an otherwise grey tree, or see a  clump of violets growing through the crack in the pathway, or the blue wren dancing on the fence just waiting for me to pass on my daily walk, then I am mesmerized,  fixed to the spot. I don't want to hurry past that place. I just want to stay with the sense of 'meeting with God'. Its like looking into his face.Like making eye contact with him.
Helen Steiner Rice wrote: I come to meet with you God. I linger here, I seem to feel you very near,  a rustling leaf, a rolling slope.
May the glorious things of God stop you in your tracks today.
Anne, servant of the Lord

A delicate flower of deep beauty.

The light of Christ

An angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. Luke 22:43
Sometimes  we sense a void, an empty space within, that is usually filled with the warmth and love of God yet he seems to have left us. I was reading about St Ignatius and his struggle with this just when he was about to give his life to Christ. He described  the experience of his 'spiritual feeling suddenly disappearing like the sun behind a cloud, and all was dark.' He could not find God and the dark within was leaping about like shadows. I think of others who  experiences  this darkness, for example at the death of someone close to them they can sense that things spiritual and the love of God is not with them and I quote psalm 23 - 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me.'  That word shadow is interesting because to have a shadow there must be a light and we know, we truly know that Christ is always with us even though at times it may seem there is nothing there but shadows. Ruth Renkie says: Never fear the shadows. They simply mean there's a light nearby.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

and all was dark

God is here. God is there.

O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things, his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. Psalm 98:1
You know you cant do a single thing outside the presence of God because every second, every minute, is in the presence of God. All that is, is God and has God in it. The beautiful flower created by God and anointed with his perfume. The leaf of every tree has the hand of God in it. Every conversation, God is present. Every dying God is there. Every living, God is there. Every which way we turn, there is God. Even in sleeping - 'Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep.'-  there is God.  Steiner Rice says: God's mighty hand can be felt every minute, for there is nothing on earth that God isn't in. Cary these thoughts in your heart as we move into another day, and all the nights and days that follow knowing that  God is with you, everywhere, in everything.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

every flower, every leaf , there is God

See his fingerprints

For your steadfast love  is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you. Ps 26:3
What a magnificent moon there has been in the night sky these last few days. Perfectly round, its mountains visible and its shine sneaking in an out of grey thin clouds. To look up and see it is a wow factor. Then in the light of day, as if caught unawares of the coming change of seasons, there was a tree covered in thick green foliage and from a closer look there were some branches of changing colour, bright red leaves. A faithful God who night after night brings out the moon and season after season brings out his glory. Patsy Clairmont wrote these words: ' Experience God in many different ways - I could see his handiwork. The bible says  that the heavens declare his glory and I see the glorious things about God. I could see his fingerprints of creation and I feel these fingerprints inside my own heart.' 
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Autumn coming.......ever faithful God.

Wow, God is awesome.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. John 14:27
We know what it is to have God's peace but I am often aware of  many in the community who do not know what it is to have  peace, let alone God's peace. I am a gardener and I love to be in the garden planting, pruning, pottering about and enjoying. Its one of my favorite places to meet with God among his handiwork and an abundance of  biblical imagery. You know the ones I mean; 'I am  the true vine,you are  the branches(John 15:1) - unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground. (John 12:24) - I have given you every plant yielding seed.(Gen 1:29)  The garden is such a place of peace and an awareness of the magnitude of the  love of God who blesses us with so much beauty and awe.  Lucado says: 'Want to see a miracle? Take a seed the size of a freckle. Put it under several inches of dirt, give it water,light and fertilizer and get ready. A mountain will be moved. It doesn't matter that the ground is a zillion times the weight of the seed. The seed will push it back! Never underestimate the power of a seed.' Just think for a moment. If you need peace, think of a seed, think of the magnitude of God, wait for the miracle, and be at peace.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord

The miracle of a seed.